I have been on the lookout for a compact zoom. I have a DSLR and sometimes the 'bag of lenses' thing can be a bit tiresome.

I have had the Z740 in the past, and I was mostly happy with that cam mainly because the shots were good right out of the cam, with punchy colours, so seeing the Z650 (can't work out how Kodak organise their model numbers) today was a nice surprise and i bought it on impulse (in the UK, paid £230 at Dixons).

It looks identical to the Z740 and has a Schneider Variogon lens, which looks nice (from memory, I didn't think the Z740 had a Schneider lens, but I may be wrong)

Bear in mind that i only got this a few hours ago, so my observations are not backed up with much practice. I do have some worries about 6MPs on cameras using a 2.5 CCD but I have been surprised how good the images are on this model.

But the thing that surprised me most was that I don't seem to be getting much camera shake on this, even at long zoom. i really thought that the lack of image stabilisation would be the achilles heal, but not at all.

I particularly like the easy access to the EV control, so that you can +/- with total ease while shooting.

The main downside that I have found is that when you shoot, the cam freezes for ages while it stores the picture. locking up the displays (I remember this being the case with the Z750), though you can switch to a rapid fire mode, which gives 2 frames a second for two seconds (ie 4 shots) and then it freezes to download the images.

This is not such a drastic thing for me because I have never used my cam in a way that makes 'frames per second' an important consideration, but it worth mentioning as something that I have not seen elsewhere to the same degree.

I need to use cam this before commenting on ISO ranges, sport modes etc but my initial thought is that I am glad I bought it. It is small, light, uses just 2 x AA and has a x10 zoom, a good snappers camera and easy to walk around with it all day.

bigdawg

Apr 18, 2006 10:06 AM

Norm I've owned a DX6490 with the schneider 10x lens for over a year now and love my DX. I wish it had the 6mps ccd but the 4 mps seems to do well enough for now. I've noticed that the 10x does not put much motion blur in the photo but when I add my TCON-17converter the motion blur intensifies rapidly! Then I have to drag out the tripod or blurry photos are all I get. I got the DX because I was tired of the baggage I was toteing around with my 35mm film SLR. This camera gives you most of what I was getting and then some as it's digital insted of film. I still have my SLR but can't seem to use it much anymore!! LOL Any way...Welcome to the forum and I hope to see some photos from that camera soon!

Dawg

MrBlue

Apr 18, 2006 9:28 PM

Congrats on your new camera Norm, I hope you post some pics soon. And Welcome to the forum.